Get a Job! (RANT/VENT)

[TNT]

TNT: Wow thats great. I find it funny that just through sheer dang luck you got in but thats about the way it goes I guess.

your company is ending outsourcing? I wonder why. Was there a reason given or that you've heard? This is the first I have heard of a company doing that.

PS do they have any offices in SW Ohio?....

It's all a very long and complex story. I suppose the bottom line is that company has come to the conclusion that in-house call centers cost a lot more, but deliver better value.

My experience working in an outsourced call center tells me they're right.

[rahmota]

TNT: Well thats anews flash that had been waiting. I wonder if this is a sign of the outsourcing trend coming to an end and maybe a reversal or not. It would be nice if more companies figured that out. Well congrats and all.

[EmiOfBrie]

Hmm..... I wonder if that company has offices in Minneapolis. I have years of call center experience with DecisionOne

[Jules Of All Trades]

There are no jobs to be had.

I know I'm jumping in really late here, but rahmota, you and I live fairly close to each other and there are jobs to be had. Are they my/your/anyone else's dream job? Perhaps not, but it's a paycheck. Is there a possibility that you'll have to commute a little longer than you really want? Perhaps, but it's a paycheck. I just did a quick job search and there are 1247 jobs within a 30 mile radius of my town. I realize you don't live where I do, but you can't be too far since we commented some time ago in another thread that we've dined at the same restaurant in the same part of town.

My ex was complaining to me the other day that there are "no jobs" around here as well. We took a 10 minute, less than 5 mile drive down the main roads of my town and saw at least 15 "Now Hiring" signs in front of stores and restaurants. How is that "no jobs"? Granted, I understand that not everyone is qualified for every job, but it sounds like you have good work experience and you're very intelligent, surely you would qualify for one of the 1247 nearby jobs?

I just don't understand it. Is is really that there are "no jobs", or are there no jobs that you feel fit your standards? As I pointed out to him, there's a big difference.

[Seshat]

And by an objective standard not just keeping up with the jonses poverty is all about being able to maintain a lifestyle of your own choosing without having to deal with crediters and bills and figuring out who to not pay for the month or who to pay. Its about not having to worry about the kids going hunggry or sick because you didnt have the money to do anythign about it. By an objective standard it is about having at least as much money coming in as money going out.

And here we come into why I started the thread about 'what is poverty'. I don't think poverty is about maintaining 'a lifestyle of your own choosing'. As soon as you talk about 'a lifestyle of your own choosing', I think you're talking about a social class problem.

Poverty (as a well-being problem) would be that above paragraph, with 'lifestyle of your own choosing' replaced with 'lifestyle consistent with human health'. Or words to that effect, anyway.


That said: society sometimes effectively prohibits people from working.
When there are no jobs a person is capable of doing, within a reasonable travel radius of that person's home, that pay an income sufficient to maintain a healthy lifestyle and enable the person to continue in that job; then society is preventing the person from working while they live in that home.
If society doesn't make it feasible for people in that position to move to a place where there are jobs, society is effectively preventing that person from working.

Taxation/welfare systems can also effectively prevent a person from working. There have been times in Aussieland when the disability, age, and other similar pensions effectively penalised a person for working. If you earned over $X, the pension would be cut by half the amount you earned. Thus your income was reduced by 50% plus tax, for every dollar you earned over $X. Oddly enough, few people want to work for a pittance.

Medical care systems that cut off once you earn over $Y also penalise people for working. Housing assistance schemes: the same. I'm sure people can think of a whole lot of other examples.

There can be a lot of disincentives to work, and it can be very hard to find jobs. However, I've had some luck writing polite letters to politicians, outlining disincentives and suggesting alternatives. You have to be patient working with politicians - the wheels of politics turn painfully slowly - but they can often get things done to reduce disincentives or make things possible.

The one thing they can't do is force jobs to be available, or force employers to hire you.

[rahmota]

Jules: Ok maybe. I go online and search for jobs and within 30 miles of my home there are 500-1200 if I dont apply any filters. The thing is its not so much jobs that are beneath me but jobs that I have the skills to do. As 80% of those jobs are either skilled trades or medical related or CDL. Of which I can do some of them but dont have the "schooling or certifications" to impress the employers with. Just practical knowledge gained from growing up on a farm. as for my standards. I dont have many when it comes to getitng paid. As long as I'm treated somewhat decently, paid fairly, and given a chance to do my job I'm good. I just take outside jobs to support my farming habit....

Also competition for a lot of these jobs is rather fierce from what I have been able to research. One company said there was 3 positions but 300 people had applied for it.

As for the commute. True I may not be that far from eastgate but fuel costs are a major concern when it comes to the commute. a round trip 5 days a week can add up.

So maybe saying there are no jobs available is not totally correct or accurate. Saying there are few good jobs that pay a worthwhile rate or are hiring people. SO yeha while there are now hiring signsd in many windows a lot of those places are not actually hiring. I was told by one manager of a fast food joint they just leave the now hiring sign up as there is a high enough turnover that eventually they would be hiring so they might as well leave the sign up.

But I do qualify for quite a few of the jobs. I am not sure what the deal is. I interview well, I am articulate, I am skilled. Its just our job environment sucks. There are more unemplyed people than there are jobs so employers can pick and choose and be picky as hell.

So anyhow I will admit that yes there may appear to be a lot of jobs on the surface many of those "jobs" are phantoms and not really there when you do go looking for them. Either that or companies use tame black holes for their resume submission systems.

[rahmota]

Sorry Seshat didnt see you post there while I was typing my response to jules.

But yeah we worked out the poverty thing rather interestingly.

Good points about the disincentives in many ways.

Your last line is not quite true. In a capitalistic system they cannot force employers to hire you or force there to be jobs. If you step away from capitalism a bit then that is so. FDR did some great things but god burned and abused for it because it was not in the spirit of greedy capitalism.

[counterjockey]

Jules: Ok maybe. I go online and search for jobs and within 30 miles of my home there are 500-1200 if I dont apply any filters. The thing is its not so much jobs that are beneath me but jobs that I have the skills to do. As 80% of those jobs are either skilled trades or medical related or CDL. Of which I can do some of them but dont have the "schooling or certifications" to impress the employers with. Just practical knowledge gained from growing up on a farm. as for my standards. I dont have many when it comes to getitng paid. As long as I'm treated somewhat decently, paid fairly, and given a chance to do my job I'm good. I just take outside jobs to support my farming habit....

Hey Rahmota,
I'm not sure how much equipment you keep around the farm, but I'd bet you could do alright on a CDL exam. I did a preliminary Google for you and found the following: http://www.bmv.ohio.gov/driver_license/cdl.htm One thing I noticed is that some of the third-party or private CDL testing outfits have vehicles available to rent for the exam. The fees look to be over $100. Expensive on the face of it, but $100 is about one credit of a three-credit class at community college anymore. What I'm getting at is that a CDL isn't the most expensive investment, and it could pay off pretty well. The same could be said of a medical-field certificate course at a community college or vocational school.

"Life's not fair" might be an accurate observation of some circumstances, but it's a hell of a thing to resign oneself to and fuck anyone who thinks it's a goal to strive towards. I'm 24, two years out of community college with my A.A. degree in English, which means I can diagram the sentence "Sorry, did you (subject) say (verb) Marlboro Reds or Lights (carcinogenic object)?" at the c-store I came crawling back to after Plans B through about H went to hell. I'm lucky that the store didn't want to lose me then or now, I guess, but the greenest pastures this cow's gonna find only pay about $10-12 an hour. Even in Iowa where cost of living is fairly cheap that doesn't get that far, and if I weren't such a boring guy I'd be sunk by some combo of child support, court-ordered restitution or fines, SR-22 insurance or what have you. I've been down and discouraged before, I'm trying hard to be hopeful now, but we'll see. I try to take the good with the bad and remember that I haven't gotten that far ahead but at least I've gotten by.

Good luck with your harvest and be safe!

[rahmota]

CJockey: Yeah a CDL would be quite nice to have. I have driven vehciles that could get me a CDL of one class or another the sad thing is that due to circumstances I'd rather not discus this is not a viable option right now.

I dont think I've resigned myself to this I'm just a bit battle fatigued from trying to fight for fairness, and my share of the pie against a stacked deck.

You fail you try you fail you try the only time you have truely failed is when you fail to try.....

[Seshat]

I dont think I've resigned myself to this I'm just a bit battle fatigued from trying to fight for fairness, and my share of the pie against a stacked deck.

The world will never be fair. All we can do is fight for it to be a bit less biased for the next generation, and fight to get what we need for this one.